TWU tops ACU, 70-69
2/1/2003 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Wildcats tripped up by TWU
Pioneers rally from 17-point deficit to win, 70-69
DENTON -- Lauri Engleman's 3-pointer with three seconds left Saturday afternoon brought Texas Woman's back from a 17-point deficit to beat ACU, 70-69, in a Lone Star Conference South Division game at Kitty Magee Arena.
The Wildcats, who led by 15 points at halftime, have now lost three straight LSC South Division games to fall to 10-10 overall and 1-4 in the division. ACU has three games left on a key five-game road trip with trips next weekend to Texas A&M-Commerce and Texas A&M-Kingsvile preceding a Feb. 11 road game at Angelo State. ACU is already 0-2 on the trip, which would determine if the Wildcats reach the LSC Post-Season Tournament for the first time since the 1999-2000 season.
The victory improves the Pioneers to 7-11 overall and 3-3 in the LSC South.
ACU dominated the first 30 minutes of the game, taking as much as a 17-point on two separate occasions early in the second half. The Wildcats still led by nine points (55-46) with 10:37 to play before the Pioneers put their comeback in high gear.
TWU got within one point at 59-58 with 6:!1 to play on a Jessica Springer free throw. The teams see-sawed back and forth for the next few minutes until TWU finally took its first lead of the afternoon at 65-64 with 1:41 to play on a Lacey Pemberton free throw.
ACU, however, looked like it might be in control when it scored the game's next four points to take a 68-65 lead with 55 seconds left, the last two on a pair of Leah Wilson free throws.
After TWU cut the lead to 68-67 with 20 seconds to play, Lynsie Blau was fouled and made the first free throw to make it a 69-67 game. However, she missed the second free throw and TWU's Meaghan Lewis came up with the rebound. Engleman hit her game-winning 3-pointer just seconds later.
ACU had one last chance on an side-inbounds play with 2.5 seconds left, but a pass intended for Melanie Carter under the basket skipped through the hands of several players before bounding out of bounds as the buzzer sounded.
ACU freshman Ashley King led all scorers with 17 points, while Carter had 15 points and Blau 14.
The Wildcats will return to action Thursday at 6 p.m. at Texas A&M-Commerce, followed by a 2 p.m. Saturday game at Texas A&M-Kingsville.
